Tron and is friend packov , flown 17 Km away a couple days ago with is 868 system ,but unfortunately they were to low ( just 300mts ) ,loose video and lost the plane ....they recover it yesterday (radio-beacon on board) and after that they fly 18Km away and return safely ...this time they climb a little more .... ¡ Congratulations !
Here is the video of the 17 Km flight and ¡ recover mission ! ja,ja

Nice flight! What antenna did they use for video receiver? What radio beacon are they using to find plane again?, how its range?
The only ones i found have a short range like 500meters when plane is on ground.

They were testing the new firmware for the DMD 868Mhz system ,now they have -100Dbm with 100% useful data and -107Dbm with 10% useful data ( limit). That means that they have increase the receiver sensibility 3 times and just with 500mw ( legal limit ) , and if you want there are a lot of 900 mhz amplifiers ( 5-20-100 W) that you can use at your own risk....They flight on a regular basis to 10-12 Km at just 100-200 mts altitude ... The problem was with the video because they were to low for that distance (<300mts for 17Km ) and the Fresnel zone were probably disrupted . They made the second flight to 18 Km without problem just a little bit higher . Wat I like from this sistem is that you see over osd the signal strengh in Db and the useful data in % . The navigation system is on test by now and of course it will have return home like the Dragon and others . For those flights they use 14Db pach antennas ( they have 24Db grid as yours , but not used ). Concerning power , remember that if you double it ,you just increase 3Db and you need 6-10 Bd to double the distance... so double power not meens double distance..
The ultralight pilots were a couple of friend that help them finding the plane ,personaly I flight a 1:1 scale Airbus ,je ,je , but for leasure I do fpv..

That was awesome, not trying to be negative but 300m-500m is still high enough to colide with a real aircraft. How do they overcome that problem? Are they in radio contact with general air traffic?

Its a little foam airplane... THOUSANDS of birds bigger and heavier than that airplane fly at those altitudes every day. If its to dangerous to have one foam airplane at that altitude for 20 minutes, then its far to dangerous to fly with thousands of birds up there all day long. In other words, dont be paranoid about something that is just not that big a risk. Your wife puts more people in danger every times she drives to get her hair done.

Your wife puts more people in danger every times she drives to get her hair done.

JettPilot

LOL

......and a big truth They´re flying at Ultralights height, and they did only pass this limit as a short range test, and only by some meters. Not something to worry about as some altitute records we have seen in the web

......and a big truth They´re flying at Ultralights height, and they did only pass this limit as a short range test, and only by some meters. Not something to worry about as some altitute records we have seen in the web

Andres

That´s it
Now they are trying to choose the range ( for control and video ) at just 300mts agl to stay under legal limits .....and of-course out of controlled airspace

Alberto, no offense for you but I think your flights are dangerous and stupid. This has been discussed also in Italian forum and 100% of the people in that thread think the same. Plus showing it here it's another stupid thing in my opinion. I invite you to be more responsable and at least to do not show off these adventures online.

Its a little foam airplane... THOUSANDS of birds bigger and heavier than that airplane fly at those altitudes every day. If its to dangerous to have one foam airplane at that altitude for 20 minutes, then its far to dangerous to fly with thousands of birds up there all day long. In other words, dont be paranoid about something that is just not that big a risk. Your wife puts more people in danger every times she drives to get her hair done.

JettPilot

Stupid answer...

So why don't kill all the birds in the sky? and for safety kill all deer, rabbit, chicken that can cross your way, they are dangerous!

Please remain serious, sending an Rc airplane 17, 20 or 50 Km out have not sense!
Why not put a camera in RC car and drive it through an highway? It's little, what injuries can bring to a big car or truck?

This post attest only irresponsibility of some modeler, and the worse thing is the admiration of other members.